The participation of EU partner nations in a summit in Russia hosted by Vladimir Putin is a message for Brussels to stop “lecturing” other parts of the world, said the top official representing the bloc’s governments.

European Council president Charles Michel told the Financial Times that the EU needed to show more respect towards developing countries with which the organisation has signed strategic, trade or political co-operation agreements if it wanted to combat Chinese and Russian efforts to expand their influence in Africa, Latin America and south-east Asia.

“We are convinced that we know what is right and what is wrong. And we don’t make the effort, at least, to understand what are the reasons for which [other countries] think another way,” Michel said.